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Last April we publicized the late Andrew Coulson’s excellent documentary School Inc.

In the documentary, Coulson addresses the conundrum of how a revolution in innovation has propelled advancements in many industries, yet for some reason such advances have largely failed to improve or alter the basic outlines of public education. Why that’s the case and what parents, governments and nations have done to confront these challenges is the story Coulson artfully tells in three compelling episodes.

When School Inc. was released last year, PBS pleased a lot of education reform and parental choice advocates when it announced that numerous PBS affiliates would air the documentary. I like to think that decision reflected the quality of Coulson’s work. It was an opinion shared by many others. School Inc. was a 2017 Winner of the Anthem Film Festival. The film has been so well received that it is now available for viewing online, courtesy of Free to Choose Media.

The last I checked the local PBS affiliate in our area chose not to show School Inc. Why I don’t know. They did not respond to my inquiry last April.

Thankfully, however, we need no longer wonder if School Inc. will be carried by TV stations.

Enjoy this insightful documentary. Although Andrew is no longer with us, we owe him our thanks for the great work he left behind.

When asked if the Republican leadership caved when it came to controlling spending Meadows didn’t really pull any punches:

Without a doubt. I mean without a doubt. Our original play was to make sure that we funded the military, we kept other spending flat. That’s what we passed, and yet what we got put on the House floor just a few hours later was this unbelievable budget deal that spent American taxpayer dollars.

After this week, it would be the easiest thing in the world for limited government conservatives to disengage. I share your disappointment. But I’m asking you: please stay active. Please keep fighting for the principles you believe in. This country is too great to do otherwise.

If you want to stay engaged on the importance of limited government and fiscal responsibility, be sure to check out the upcoming Conservative Leadership Conference in Raleigh on April 13, 14.

In contrast to Meadows, North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis attempted to rebuke Kentucky Senator Rand Paul after he held up the Senate for a short period to remind Republicans of their spending hypocrisy. “Do you want to be a senator who wants to make a point or do you want to make a difference?” declared Tillis. During his campaign for the U.S. Senate, Tillis, like most Republicans, chastised his opponent for doing nothing to stop the record-setting deficits and debt under President Obama. Now he appears unable to muster up enough courage to halt the reckless and irresponsible spending in Washington. In fact, he attacks the one senator with the courage to warn the nation of Washington’s reckless and unsustainable spending.

I own a great book titled “Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot” by Medal of Honor recipient James B. Stockdale. He passed away in 2005 but you might remember him as Ross Perot’s running mate for the presidency in 1992. Stockdale has an especially prescient quote in that book worth sharing given what is occurring in Washington:

Those who study the rise and fall of civilizations learn that no shortcoming has been surely fatal to republics as a dearth of public virtue, the unwillingness of those who govern to place the value of their society above personal interest. Yet today we read outcries from conscientious congressman disenchanted with the proceedings of their legislative body and totally disgusted with the log-jamming effect of their peers’ selfish and artful distancing of themselves from critical spending cutbacks, much needed belt-tightening legislation without which the long-term existence of our republic itself is endangered. (p. 74)

If you asked a bunch of random North Carolinians what the biggest problem in the state is you would certainly get lots of different and unrelated answers.

But I think most conservatives in this state would agree that judicial activism is taking a tremendous toll on liberty and self-government, and not just here, but across the nation. This is why so often we hear candidates for president on the right declaring at rallies that they will appoint judges who will interpret the law as written and not “legislate from the bench.” After all, what is the point of winning elections and trying to make reforms if the will of the voters is constantly muted?

Even more than other states it seems, North Carolina is swept up by a judicial activism at the state and federal level.

A myriad of laws originating in the legislature whether it be on issues like Voter ID, redistricting, or abortion restrictions, has been struck down by the courts. Almost everything that is legislated is litigated. Gov. Roy Cooper is well noted for his “see you in court” mentality when he disagrees with legislation. Progressive liberals say this is the fault of the legislature and the left is emboldened more and more to legislate through the courts.

It’s not a clear-cut answer even on the political right but I think the piece is helpful for understanding the importance of the legislature to govern and when its power becomes eroded by the courts that inevitably threatens self-government. Mendenhall notes:

“This legislative is not only the supreme power of the commonwealth,” [John] Locke intoned, “but sacred and unalterable in the hands where the community have once placed it; nor can any edict of anybody else, in what form soever conceived or by what power soever backed, have the force and obligation of a law which has not its sanction from that legislative which the public has chosen and appointed.”

Because the legislature, in his view, embodied “the consent of the society over whom nobody can have a power to make laws.” Locke’s paradigm holds, accordingly, that the legislature speaks for the people, from whom legitimate government obtains its limited authority; legislation reflects a general consensus among the people about controlling norms, beliefs, and values. The judiciary is curiously absent from this paradigm.

It’s clear to me that more judicial restraint is needed when it comes to intervening in the legislative process in North Carolina, regardless of what party holds power. Thomas Jefferson was fond of saying that liberty ultimately rests with the people, which definitely includes its legislative representatives that are closest to those whom they govern. This is an essential issue going forward to maintain a proper balance of the separation of powers and to also make sure more power is not usurped from the voter.

Yesterday Republican leaders in the House and Senate announced their solution for the brewing class size controversy. The plan (HB 90) will keep class sizes as they are in the 2018-19 school year and then phase in the new caps over four years, until the 2021-2022 school year. The phase -in is intended to allow schools more time to deal with the impacts of lower class sizes.

In addition to providing more time the bill also allots $245 million over the next four years – about $61 million per year — to fund approximately 3,500 Program Enhancement Teachers (e.g., art teachers, music teachers, physical education teachers) at public and charter schools. Some feared the new class size requirements jeopardized funding for personal enrichment teachers. Republican leaders say the bill will provide funding for all Program Enrichment Teachers.

Several other provisions in the bill are also worth noting.

Democrats won’t likely be thrilled about a provision that distributes the $57.8 million in funding the Governor’s office received from Duke Energy and Dominion Energy as part of the approval process for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) to local school districts through which the pipeline crosses. Governor Cooper’s office said the funds collected as part of ACP were scheduled to be used to lessen environmental damage, promote economic development and advance renewable energy initiatives. Republicans have questioned the legality of requesting the funds as part of the permitting process and say it’s hard to call the fund anything but a “slush fund.”

Another provision included in the bill adds a 9th seat to the merged eight-member state elections and ethics boards. This comes after the State Supreme Court sided with the Governor and gave him more discretion over appointments to the merged board. According to the legislation, the 9th seat will be an unaffiliated voter and will be selected by the four other Republican and Democrats on the combined board.

Finally the bill also makes changes to simplify eligibility criteria for those applying for the state’s new ESA program. The changes also allow those currently accessing the Disability Scholarship to also apply for the new ESA program.

HB 90 will be voted on in the Senate today and in the House early next week.

Visitors to this web site know that Civitas has been outspoken in its opposition to the use of tax breaks and incentives to woo big companies to North Carolina.

Such practices constitute nothing less than corporate welfare and cronyism. How does it work? The state doles out the perks for big business, the state picks the winners – and losers; and the state leaves taxpayers and the businesses on Main Street to pick up the tab.

If you think corporate incentives are only used to attract businesses, think again.

Earlier this week Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, called for legislators in that State to come up with a” FoxConn type” incentives package for Kimberly-Clark Corporation, a company with deep roots in Wisconsin but had recently announced it would be closing two plants in the state and laying off 600 employees.

Last fall, Walker and the state legislature offered FoxConn, a Chinese electronics manufacturer, $3 billion in tax breaks and credits to locate a large manufacturing plant in Southeast Wisconsin. FoxConn pledged $10 billion in investment and said it would bring 13,000 jobs, with an average salary of $54,000. By the time the negotiating stopped an additional $1.5 billion in infrastructure and local costs were included, raising the total value of the tax and incentives package to $4.5 billion. The numbers helped to make the FoxConn deal one of the biggest incentive packages ever promised to a company to locate in the United States.

While the numbers are boggling, the deal wasn’t a slam dunk. Significant opposition emerged in Wisconsin. Nevertheless, the deal was passed by the State Legislature – with a lot of kicking and screaming. Opponents say it will take until 2043 for the state to recoup all the lost revenue. Moreover, with Wisconsin’s unemployment rate at 3 percent, there is concern that there won’t be a large enough labor pool. To address those concerns Wisconsin is spending $7 million to attract workers to the state.

Of course, we could talk about the wisdom of that decision, but I simply ask: Where does it all end?

Some friends of mine say, “That’s Wisconsin, things like that don’t happen in North Carolina.”

Believe me they will -and doing so won’t require an economic downturn either.

General Electric recently moved its headquarters from Fairfield, Connecticut to Boston, Massachusetts. The jockeying among states to house a Fortune 500 corporate headquarters was fierce. Ultimately, GE chose Boston over other candidates. After you review all the aid packages , you can easily see that the incentives Massachusetts offered were considerably less than those offered by other states.

So why did GE re-locate to a place locals refer to as “Taxachusetts”? One word, millennials. Millennials want to live and work in large cities. They don’t want to commute. And they want to live and work in places where there is plenty to do. No amount of money would change the fact that Fairfield, CT is an affluent, sleepy little suburb 90 minutes from New York City.

Much as we like to think so, decisions to build or relocate companies don’t always turn on economic considerations. Earlier this week it was announced that North Carolina lost out to Alabama as the site for a new Toyota assembly plant, even though the aid package Alabama offered Toyota was far less than what North Carolina had put together. Still it appears the decision came down to a number of things Alabama had that North Carolina did not: lower energy costs, proximity to auto suppliers and better access to a distribution network.

Citizens are constantly told about the importance of the aid package to lure companies like Toyota or Amazon to North Carolina. Don’t listen to them. Such proposals amount to corporate welfare. They put local businesses at a severe disadvantage, ask local taxpayers to shoulder the costs for big business tax breaks and seldom if ever prove to be the most important factors for company’s choosing to relocate.

All compelling reasons why North Carolina should end this policy as soon as possible.

Less than two weeks after his administration issued a key permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Gov. Roy Cooper announced Wednesday that he hired a legislative affairs director who once lobbied Congress on the natural gas pipeline.

Lee Lilley will be paid $128,000 a year in his new role, replacing Brad Adcock, who returned to retirement, according to a statement from Cooper’s office. Adcock had been a lobbyist for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.

A former legislative director for Democratic U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield of Wilson, Lilley had worked since 2012 for McGuireWoods Consulting, the lobbying arm of the law firm of the same name. One of the clients was Richmond-based Dominion Energy, a partner in the Atlantic Coast Pipeline along with Charlotte-based Duke Energy.

Now Gov. Cooper confirms that his intention for the $58 million extortion “voluntary contribution” made in exchange for the approval of permits to allow the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to begin construction will be exclusively his slush fund.

Legislators won’t get to decide how to spend a nearly $58 million fund being set up to mitigate the environmental impacts of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a spokesman for Gov. Roy Cooper said Tuesday night.

Cooper spokesman Ford Porter reached out to WRAL News Tuesday evening after a piece on @NCCapitol (available below) indicated otherwise. Porter took issue with the post’s headline and said the governor is not open to legislative involvement in the fund. (emphasis added)

“I wasn’t involved in the negotiations, but I understand that that was part of the process,” Harrison said. “It wasn’t that they were paying $57 million or whatever it was to get the permit. It was just that that was a condition of getting the permit granted was the access to this fund that would try to undo some of the damage that was created by the pipeline…” (emphasis added)

A condition of getting the permit granted?

This deal reeks of pay to play corruption at the highest level of our state government.

First, there is a 90 percent chance of rain in Raleigh, on Saturday. Not an ideal weather situation for an outdoor event.

However, and more importantly, the policies that the crowd will be clamoring for are dangerous for our nation and North Carolina. It is important to make clear, in this time of political screaming matches, that the conversation should be about good policy and not personality or gimmicks.

The North Carolina chapter for the NAACP appears to be the primary sponsor of the event, and I agree that this nation needs a serious conversation over issues of race. However, this event has taken a “Big Tent” approach, as opposed to the stated mission of the NAACP which is “to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination.”

Instead the “Moral March on Raleigh” (This name is laughable when you get into the substance of the event. Does morality really boil down to increasing government control of our daily lives? Or is this name simply well message-tested?), is focused on all issues from the progressive left of North Carolina. The website for the March includes Mobilization Packets, which are broken down into the following policy areas:

Criminal Justice

Democracy and Human Rights

Economy

Education

Environment

Health Care and Women’s Rights

Immigration Rights

Labor

Peace

I am not going to be heavy-handed – like some on the progressive left – and say that all of the policies in these packets are wrong because I believe in reasoned debate on real issues.

However, these Mobilization Packets contain some real policy head turners. Below are my top 3 economic policy reasons to ignore the “Moral March on Raleigh.”

1) The March will call for the state to “Raise the state minimum wage to $15 per hour and allow for inflation, requiring State Contractors to pay all employees and Subcontractors a ‘living wage’ plus benefits.”

For just a moment, let’s skip over the fact that a “living wage” is nearly impossible to define. What are the implications of a $15 per hour minimum wage?

In North Carolina, the economic impact could be catastrophic. A 2016 report by the Heritage Foundation found that raising the state minimum wage to $15 per hour (beyond the federal minimum) would result in 367,000 lost jobs in North Carolina. That is because raising the minimum wage increases mandatory labor costs, and multiple studies have found that this type of policy causes businesses to reduce lower-skill labor in their workforce.[i]

An additional 367,000 unemployed workers is not a moral economic vision for North Carolina.

2) The March will call for “Termination of the assault on teachers and other public employees such as first responders and law enforcement, and acknowledge their right to collective bargaining.”

The Marchers are going to have a difficult time convincing the public that an “assault on teachers” exists, particularly when teachers have received multiple pay increases over the past few years.

However, why should North Carolinians want collective bargaining (read: unionization) of public employees? The very nature of government-provided services — such as policing, putting out fires and K-12 education of our children — gives government a monopoly or near monopoly. Allowing public employee collective bargaining raises the prospect of future workers strikes, and striking public employees could therefore hold the public hostage and harm the common good.

Allowing collective bargaining for employees opens North Carolina up to fiascos like the infamous Chicago Teacher Strike in 2012, when schools were closed for eight days due to a teacher strike over school day length and performance evaluations.

Exposing North Carolina communities to the risk of public service strikes is not a moral vision for North Carolina.

3) The March will call for the state to “Expand Medicaid-close the coverage gap.”

Medicaid was created in 1965 as a health insurance program for low- income individuals, but instead has ballooned into a broken, costly program. Its eligibility has expanded over the years to include the disabled, children and pregnant women. States have little control over the program, and essentially function as the administrative arm of the federal government.

Under Obamacare, states have the choice to expand Medicaid eligibility to individuals earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. The equates to approximately $28,179 for a family of three.

However, expanding Medicaid is not a morally good policy option for North Carolina.

Why?

First, Medicaid often provides sub-standard care, which leads to worse health outcomes for enrollees. Yes, more people will have insurance, but insurance is not healthcare. Multiple studies show that Medicaid patients have worse health outcomes than other insured patients. At best, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, “Medicaid coverage generated no significant improvements in measured physical health outcomes.”

Second, Medicaid expansion is expensive. Medicaid expansion under Obamacare means that the federal government pays 100 percent of the expansion cost for three years, then the state takes on 10 percent of the cost after the third year. Expanding Medicaid in North Carolina means adding at least 400,000 new enrollees to Medicaid rolls, which means significant additional cost to the state budget. Paying for this new cost will have to come from a revenue increase – likely from increased taxes – which means more people will be out of work and move to Medicaid for insurance. Thus, Medicaid is too expensive of a risk for North Carolina and keeps low-income families in a vicious cycle of poverty.

Medicaid expansion is not a moral vision for North Carolina.

The Moral March, it appears, is struggling to find a moral vision for North Carolina. Forcing people out of work, holding communities and families hostage to union bosses, and expanding government health insurance with questionable cost-benefit is not moral or compelling. It’s simply a vision to expand government power and the special interest groups that want to control it.

On this date in 1911 Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois. Were he still with us, America’s 40th president would have been 107 years old.

I had the privilege to work for President Reagan and consider it one of the great experiences of my life. He was an honorable man of deep faith and conviction who was in love with America and her people. One of his greatest gifts was his ability to communicate that love of country to average Americans. In doing so, he inspired us all to be better people and a better nation.

Most young people only know Ronald Reagan from their high school history books or a few videos they may have watched. That’s sad because the man was a treasure and a great president. His is a story worth knowing and is story of a man who really did make America great again.

Some of my favorite pithy quotations from President Reagan include:

Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.

We can’t help everyone, but someone can help everyone.

Government’s first duty is to protect people, not run their lives.

The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant. It’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.

All great change begins at the kitchen table.

The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.

The federal government did not create the states; the states created the federal government.

A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.

There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.

Man is not free unless government is limited.

Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They’re just braver 5 minutes longer.

One of the advantages of observing the many incentives being thrown at Amazon is that it highlights the absurdities of cronyism and government meddling in the market. This humorous video created by ReasonTV depicts well the utter hype and insanity of it all in attracting HQ2.

At Civitas, we’ve been consistent in pointing out the unfairness of such policies in general and especially for North Carolina. Donald Bryson has already pointed out some of the unfair policies in regards to the costly tax incentives for HQ2. This state has improved in recent years in promoting a friendlier business climate for all instead of merely picking winners and losers. Besides, Washington D.C. has already and unfortunately modeled those kinds of policies for too long. We shouldn’t copy them. It would be a shame for North Carolina to regress so radically on that front.

As it relates to incentives, below is sage advice from the late economist Henry Hazlitt in his masterful book “Economics in One Lesson:”

The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.

“For all groups,” and particularly for the common good, is a key quote from that line. One of the main purposes of government is to protect the property and to “secure the blessings of liberty” for its citizens. The government can’t do that if it is favoring one competitor over another or one citizen over the other by creating a separate set of rules and regulations. The issue of cronyism is something the political left and right should be united on to a greater degree going forward.

Pushing back against government corruption is an American tradition, and I can’t think of many issues outside of cronyism that deserve greater pushback, particularly because it is so unfair to the taxpayer and citizenry. Hopefully, one positive that comes out of this Amazon hysteria is a deeper understanding of the pitfalls of cronyism and a respect for the rule of law.